


efflorescence

by spxcewvlker



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bughead Freeform, F/M, Feels, Fluff, High School, Oneshot, Romance, Seven Minutes In Heaven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 03:37:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10982553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spxcewvlker/pseuds/spxcewvlker
Summary: [bughead oneshot, post episode 6.]"Somehow, that was all Jughead could think about. The kiss. The moment he got to feel Betty's soft pink lips, which tasted like strawberries. The moment he finally got to show her how he actually felt about her."





	efflorescence

**Author's Note:**

> just a cute little bughead one shot inspired by a rumour I heard about what episode 7 was going to be like. of course, the seventh episode didn't go that way at all, but I hope you guys are still going to enjoy this! happy reading xoxo

**_N_** either of them had brought up the subject of the kiss they had shared back in Betty's room the day before. The many events following their intimate embrace happened so fast that they barely got time to breathe, or even to think about anything that didn't involve either Polly, Jason's car, or simply the Jason Blossom case.

Neither of them had brought it up, but somehow, that was all Jughead could think about. _The kiss_. The moment he got to feel Betty's soft pink lips, which tasted like strawberries. The moment he finally got to show her how he actually felt about her, the blonde girl next door who had completely blinded him with such a strong and overwhelming feeling. When their lips had parted, he didn't think their moment was going to be squished so quickly, taken away from their main thoughts—at least from Betty's. Did she even... _like it?_ Of course she did, he remembered noticing her sweet lips curving into a gentle smile for several seconds right after it happened. But she didn't say anything about it afterward, in fact, she still hadn't. Yes, she had spoken to him ever since, but only about things related to the case they were working on, as though their kiss had long left her mind. As though nothing had ever happened between them.

After almost twenty-four hours of silence coming from the blonde, Jughead couldn't take it any longer. He needed to know how she felt about him, but at the same time, he didn't want her to feel rushed into anything. The thing is, even if she didn't want to be with him, that would have been okay. Painful, but okay. Because that's how much he cared for her.

And so the next day at school, as they all sat around their usual table outside for lunch, the raven-haired boy felt so conflicted about whether he would ask her about it or not. They didn't even have to date yet or anything; he simply needed, _wanted_ to know how she was taking everything. He was more leaning toward remaining silence for now, knowing that Betty was currently dealing with a lot of issues concerning her family, and that she probably didn't need to have to be bothered with questions such as the one he longed to ask her.

"I've got to say, Archiekins, you totally crushed them all with your performance of yesterday," Veronica said loud enough for the whole table to hear, a smile creeping on her face as she looked to the redhead boy.

"Thanks, Ronnie," Archie said with a small chuckle, his cheeks tinting with a light shade of red.

"Oh yeah, you were incredible," Kevin began. "I have to be honest here though; I really thought for a moment you were gonna chicken out another time..." he joked, earning a couple of chuckles from the others sitting at their table.

Except from Jughead. And surprisingly, from Betty as well. She was evidently trying to keep up with the conversation going on at the table, but it was as though she wasn't there mentally. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't focus. And that really surprised the dark haired boy, because Archie used to be the blonde's first priority. He had always been the one she would give most of her attention to, and everybody—except Archie himself,—knew that.

After several seconds of laughters and remarks thrown at Archie, a voice suddenly pulled Betty out of her thoughts.

"Hey, you okay, B?" Veronica asked as her eyes finally locked onto the blonde's face.

"Y-Yeah, yeah I'm fine!" Betty answered with a newfound smile, though hesitating a bit too long for Jughead's concern. "I'm just... a bit overwhelmed, I've got a lot of exams coming up next week." Which was a lie. She probably thought nobody would realize that they had no exams coming up whatsoever, even though she shared all of her classes with at least one of the people sitting around the table. She knew they were all too caught up into Archie's success to realize something so obvious, and thought she managed to avoid being thrown multiple questions at her.

She was convinced nobody noticed when she slowly lowered her head down to stare at her empty plate, assuming her friends would've moved on to another subject by now. But she had forgotten about Jughead, the only one who had never taken his eyes off the blonde for his entire life so far.

He stared at her with a deep frown, knowing she couldn't see him as he tried to read her like an open book.

  
What was going on with his Betty?

 

✿ ✿ ✿

 

When the school day finally came to an end, Betty walked up to her locker, keeping her head down and not noticing that someone was waiting right next to it. And so she almost dropped her textbooks when she heard the only voice she didn't mind to hear that much at the moment.

"Betty, we need to talk." It was Jughead, his arms crossed as he leaned against her locker.

"Oh my god— _Juggie_ , you scared me!" Betty shouted louder than expected, feeling embarrassed as some curious gazes from the students walking across the hall were suddenly dragged on them.

However, Jughead did not seem to care about the people surrounding them. He was about to say something else as his blueish eyes locked with hers, but decided to wait as soon as he spotted Veronica making her way toward them.

"Just the two I was looking for!" She announced with a smile, her gaze landing on Betty. "Surprisingly, Josie is throwing a kind of party at her house tonight, and she invited all of us. Don't ask me why, because I have no idea why the hell she would invite Archie's friends,—let along Archie himself,—to a party, after how Valerie pulled a Yoko Ono on the Pussycats just to be with him. But you know Archie, as oblivious as ever, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know Josie is holding a grudge against him."

Betty contented to nod, pretending to be interested in what her friend was saying. "Well, I hope you have fun, as for me I have other things pl-"

"Don't even try to get away from it, B. You're definitely coming with us, I'm sure being a teenager for one night isn't going to do you any harm." Veronica interrupted the blonde before gently nudging her shoulder.

Seeing the attention was now focused on Veronica and the party, Jughead decided to just exclude himself from the conversation and was about to walk away when he felt Veronica's hand grabbing his arm and pulling him back into the small circle formed around Betty's locker. "Oh you're coming too, Jughead."

_Great_.

 

✿ ✿ ✿

 

Jughead started feeling rather uncomfortable as soon as he stepped into Josie's house with all the noises and people occupying the place. He had never been a party kind of person, and besides, not many people liked him, or even noticed him.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Veronica encouraged her friends as she literally forced them inside the house. It was obvious neither of the two wanted to go, but everyone knew that Veronica Lodge wouldn't take no for an answer.

The first part of the evening was extremely pointless and boring according to the dark haired boy, and he had lost counts for the number of time he had glanced to the door, wishing he could have been somewhere else. For example, with Betty at Pop's, or at the school _Blue and Gold_ paper's office, where they could've discussed about the Jason Blossom case. That would have been far more interesting than having to watch people dance and getting drunk. It's not that there were a ton of people gathered around the room,—there were no more than twenty,—but simply the thought of being in a room full of people almost made him feel sick.

He let himself glance another time at Betty who stood right next to Veronica and Archie, when Josie announced something to the entire room.

"Who's up for a little game of seven minutes in heaven?" She asked the small group of people gathered in the room, while holding up an empty glass bottle of coke.

"Oh no, not _that_ game again," Betty said quietly as she recalled what happened the last time they had played.

Veronica and Archie both exchanged embarrassed glances. "Hey, B... if you're not gonna play, I won't either." The raven-haired girl told her friend as she put her hand on top of her shoulder, trying to make her feel better.

"Oh, and _everyone_ has to play," Josie added with a large smile when she noticed some people starting to walk away from the crowd, Jughead being one of them.

 

✿ ✿ ✿

 

"It's definitely the last time I'm going to a party, V, I hope you know that." Betty told her friend as they joined the circle of people formed in the middle of the room. "I _hate_ this game."

"Sorry Betty, but I dont think Ronnie is going to let you miss an occasion for you to have some fun," Archie told her with a playful smile as he sat on the floor, in between Valerie and Veronica.

"You're damn right, Archiekins." Veronica added with a laugh.

At her friends's answers, the blonde contented to look down to her crossed legs, releasing a soft sigh out of her mouth. She had already gotten over the fact that Veronica and Archie had probably kissed in that closet back in Cheryl's house, but deep down her heart, it really wasn't what was bugging her the most. No, what was disturbing her was the fact that she had been dragged in a party she didn't even want to be at, when she could've been doing something far more important, like investigating on the case with Jughead.

After meeting with Polly a few days ago, her obsession with trying to prove right her sister's story had gotten completely out of hands. It was all she could think about, day and night. That, and the kiss that had happened between her and Jughead. Although whenever that thought came to her mind, she replaced it with the case, as much as she wanted to talk about what had happened with him. But she just _had_ to help her sister, and now that she found out about her pregnancy, there was no way she was going to spend her time focused on something that wasn't going to help Polly.

"Betty doesn't have to go to parties if she doesn't want to." Jughead suddenly spoke, a cold, harsh expression covering his features as the words escaped his lips. He truly looked annoyed, pissed even. Which created confusion amongst his fellow friends, due to the simple fact that Jughead Jones the third would never speak up for others,—let along girls. 

Veronica raised a brow. "Since when do you care about about what Betty wants?"

But he remained silent. He wasn't going to speak the truth in front of everyone, mostly not after being so unsure about Betty's feelings related to him.

The blonde immediately looked up to Jughead, their eyes meeting for several seconds before he broke the stare by looking away. His heart was sinking into his chest, he couldn't have Betty know how messed up she made him feel by simply looking at him. Plus, he couldn't have her feel pressured about anything right at the moment.

 

✿ ✿ ✿

 

The bottle spun and spun for what seemed like hours to Jughead, regularly stopping and sending off people in the closet. He had considered sneaking away a lot of time, but he couldn't convince himself to leave Betty here alone, especially not if the bottle were to match her with someone that wouldn't have been him. He needed to be there for her, to make sure she had everything she needed.

And suddenly, the moment he dreaded the most to happen happened; the bottle stopped on Betty and Reggie. As soon as she realized what this meant, the blonde's face melted into severe panic.

"Looks like we're going to have some fun in there, you coming, blondie?"

"She's certainly not going in there with you, Reggie..." Jughead muttered, and the entire room went silent as tension began to build up between the two boys.

Betty's heart stopped. _What the hell was he doing?_

Josie laughed. "Sorry love, but the rules say only the two person on which the bottle stopped can play seven minutes in heaven in the closet." She paused. "Did the bottle stop on you? No, it didn't."

"I don't give a shit about the rules, Josie." Jughead answered, trying to remain calm as he got up, his fists clenching. And on that, he walked up to the blonde and offered her his hand in order to help her up. "Betty, you're coming with me."

It was as though nobody dared to say anything, not even Reggie. Everyone in the room remained silent as Betty accepted Jughead's help to get up, the two of them then walking toward the closet.

Jughead had no idea what had gotten into him, but he couldn't handle the thought of Betty going into a closet with a boy like Reggie, someone who was barely seeing her as an actual human being. She was _his_ Betty, and he had to protect her. He didn't even care about what their friends were going to think, he didn't even know what he would tell her once they would get in the closet. But at least he knew that as long as she would be with him, she was going to be treated the way she deserved.

As soon as the door of the closet closed behind them, Betty pulled her hand away from his, a look of deep confusion spreading onto her face. "Juggie... what the hell was that?"

The boy closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, scratching the back of his neck as he nervously wandered around the small space surrounding them.

"Jughead," Betty said softly, this time obtaining his complete attention. Their eyes locked and they once shared a gaze holding full of unsaid things, and built up feelings from a long time ago.

This time, instead of looking away, the boy kept staring into her eyes, as though her simple gaze could calm him and steady his raging heartbeats through his chest. And he didn't want to look away from her beautiful face; she was so perfect and Archie had been so blind to reject her. But in a way, he was relieved the redhead boy did, even though he was never going to reveal that to anyone; he knew it was extremely selfish of him. "Betty..." he whispered with a matching tone as his breaths raged, feeling overwhelmed by her breathtaking blue eyes and quite inviting pink lips. Oh, how he wanted to close the distance between their mouths once again. But he didn't want to force her into something she didn't want to, it wasn't how he wanted things to go between the two of them. "Look, I... I couldn't let you go in there alone with him, I-"

"Jughead." Betty said again, a light, discrete smile appearing on her face as she gently tucked up a loose strand of his dark hair back into his crown shaped beanie. Then, she allowed her fingers to trail down the skin of his warm cheek, before finally resting her hand in the back of his neck. "I know..." she whispered without breaking their shared stare, as though his eyes were an opened window to his soul. As though she could read him entirely, and understand every single choices of his. Only for a matter of seconds, because what happened next made their eyes shut immediately.

Their lips melded into one another as they shared another tender kiss, filled with need, but most importantly, filled with love, or something very, _very_ close to that.

_A blooming kind of love._

 


End file.
